Lighthouse Laboratory still waiting for its big switch-on
SITE SET TO PROCESS 80,000 TESTS A DAY
UNCERTAINTY still surrounds the opening of the North East’s ‘Lighthouse Laboratory’ Covid testing site.
Local health chiefs are still awaiting the final seal of approval from the government to open the facility, which has been built at the Baltic Park industrial estate in Gateshead.
The much-heralded testing hub, which will create 1,100 jobs, was initially slated for a December opening but missed that target date.
Newcastle public health director Eugene Milne said at the end of January that the site was “ready to go” and would open “in the very near future”.
It had been hoped that the Lighthouse Lab would have been open earlier this month, but bosses say they still need “some final information” from the government before it becomes operational.
Once it is at full capacity, the Lighthouse Lab should be able to process up to 80,000 Covid tests per day – but officials remain in the dark as to when they will be able to process the first samples.
Martin Wilson, managing director for the Integrated Covid Hub North East, said: “Building the Lighthouse Lab in the timescales involved has been a remarkable achievement.
“We are waiting for some final information from the Department of Health and Social Care before the first Covid test samples can be processed.”
The Department for Health and Social Care was contacted for a comment.
At the start of February, the government merely stated that planning was “under way” for the facility.
The project was hailed as a significant expansion of the Test and Trace programme when it was announced last September, with test results integrated into the national system and electronic care records so they are immediately available to both those who have been tested and public health chiefs.
The Lighthouse Lab was announced at the same time as a specialist Covid innovation lab at the Newcastle Helix site, which is now operational.
At a Newcastle City Council health scrutiny meeting in January, Lib Dem councillor Wendy Taylor said she feared the lab “will open just after the pandemic ends at this rate”.
At the January 29 meeting, Prof Milne replied: “It is ready to go, frankly. There are a few things to tie up with contracts and the Government, but it is installed, the building is handed over, and I would expect something in the very near future on that.
“I would not underestimate its continued importance. I think as we move out of the current lockdown, as we see numbers come down and the vaccine rolled out, and an impact on reducing mortality in the most vulnerable groups, the opening up of society means that there is that risk of seeing the spread of virus again as a result of increased contact and movements.
“We are going to need a robust testing and Test and Trace system in place to deal with that for some time to come.
“I take your point about the timescale, but I think it has been done at an extraordinary pace and is an incredible achievement and a real asset to the local area.”